It’s Hair in Pedigree Dog Food

Reports of pieces of “wire” in Pedigree dog food have been spreading on social media. Consumers are concerned what the wire like substances found sticking out of pieces of Pedigree kibble are. The answer – it’s animal hair.

Below are some of the images that have been posted on Facebook…

Those fibers sticking out of the Pedigree kibble are hair – Pedigree admits they are pig hair. In a response to a concerned consumer Pedigree stated “We understand your concern and our pet’s safety is our first priority too. Our team has conducted testing on affected kibble and determined these are natural fibers from meat and bone meal, like pig hair, that occur with products made using those ingredients. PEDIGREE is completely safe for your dog to enjoy.“

Pedigree says they are “natural fibers” – but the product label certainly doesn’t include any pictures of anything similar to “natural fibers” on the pet food bag. Looks more like grilled chicken to me.

This pet food sells at Walmart for $0.46 a pound (50 pound bag). Considering Walmart mark-up and Mars Petcare mark-up (manufacturer of Pedigree), we can safely assume the ingredients in the dog food cost the manufacturer about $0.15 a pound.

The most likely source of hair in this pet food is the ingredient “Meat and Bone Meal” – which interestingly Pedigree tells consumers is the “source of calcium” (not the source of hair). Meat and bone meal is one of the ingredients FDA testing found “could include euthanized animals.” Whole dead animals (not slaughtered animals) can be included in this ingredient, the skin of slaughtered animals that have been treated with a denaturing chemical can be included in this ingredient, actually just about anything can be included in this pet food ingredient. But the pet food label does not disclose this to the consumer.

As well, the only chicken ingredient in this pet food is “Chicken By-Product Meal” – which looks nothing like the grilled chicken meat displayed on the Pedigree label. Chicken by-product meal looks like this…

Regulatory authorities have told me they enforce pet food regulations of misleading images on pet foods in situations like this – when the pet food includes a powdered meal ingredient and displays a grilled meat image on the label. But I guess this one – one of the most highly sold pet foods out there – got past FDA’s and each State Department of Agriculture’s scrutiny.

This is wrong – magnified because no regulatory authority is stopping pet foods from misleading pet food consumers. If hide and hair is included in a pet food, the label should disclose this information to the pet food consumer. Instead consumers get images of grilled meats on the label. It’s very, very wrong.

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Comments 41

I would never feed pedigree to my pets.
Animal meat, animal bone, etc are euthanized dogs and cats from animal shelters. Trucks pick up the killed dogs and cats for free as the poor dead dogs and cats are used as animal protein and animal bone for calicium for pet food.
This why Pedigree is so cheap. The animal protein source is free. I can not imagine feeding innocently killed dogs and cats from shelters to my own pets.

The dead dogs and cats are trucked into a rendering plant where all the dead dogs and cats are cooked and ground up whole, including any collars, leashes, ropes on the pets, also chopped and grounded into pedigree pet food.

This is so sick, this is why I never buy Pedigree or Nestle Purina, Science Diet, Iams, Eucanuba, Oh Roy, grocery brands, etc.

Read Pet Food, Pets Die For to learn more on the free ingredients Big Pet Food uses in pet food. It makes the pet food very profitable when the animal meat protein is free from shelters with masses amounts of killed dogs and cats.

I agree with you on avoiding those big brand names of pet foods, all of them produced by major conglomerates that make a number of different “levels” of pet foods. Practically all the brands you see in those big box stores are made by only a few big conglomerates.

I will only buy pet food that is made by a company that ONLY makes pet food, and has their own name on every package. Once I hear that a smaller brand is being bought, I refuse to use or recommend it anymore.

Well, you know, if they are forced to put more accurate images on the bags, they may just resort to putting a cute picture of a pig or cow or chicken on the bag.

That would mean they are at least honest, so if somebody finds pig hair in their food, the manufacturer only has to say, “well, we put a picture of a pig on the package, pigs have hair, so . . . our pants are not on fire”

The hair in the Pedigree Pet Food is Dog and Cat Hair. Don’t fool yourself, that is what it is. Sick as it can be, this is how Big Pet Food gets its free ingredients. All the shelters have many many killed dogs and cats, and they are picked up for free as free ingredients for pet food.

The correct picture on the Pedigree Pet Food bag, should be some dead killed dogs and cats from the shelter.

I quit using PURINA Anything in the late 1960’s — had put a pan of the (then) little milkcan shaped, ‘dusted’ PUPPYCHOW to soak for my litter of Dane pups — went back in about an hour to see if it had sufficiently rehydrated and the surface of the product was covered in little (less than 1/4″ ) black ‘threads’. Having raised cattle and chickens, it was obviously either ‘hair’ or feather particles – but all of them were black – so I concluded that it was cattle hair. Last bag of PURINA Anything I ever purchased! Not Animal feed, not dog feed, nothing made ( to my knowledge ) by Purina/Checker Board Farms has crossed my threshold since.

It would depend on what type of testing you are doing – such as with hair, to do analysis of what species of hair it is, DNA analysis would need to be performed. Vet schools can be good resources to do testing, most have labs and will test products for consumers. But try not to disclose the name of the pet food to the lab – some have close ties to pet food manufacturers and the results might be bias.

I am convinced that Pedigree Dog Food was the cause of my 6 year old beagle mix’s death from lymphoma. I had feed it to her for many years. It was this or Beneful. I will not feed these commercial foods to my pets!

Also watch out for chunks of a rubbery substance in canned foods. I bought a case of Wellness cat food last year and found such a piece, which I sent (after saving a piece for myself) back to Wellness for analysis. They claimed it was a clump of mineral supplements which did not get properly mixed in with the batch of food. If one of my cats had eaten it they would have consumed a massively large quantity of mineral supplements, and who knows what that might have done to them. Now I always mash up canned food and look at it before feeding.

Rescues may not have a choice when it comes to feeding our animals because the high end food isn’t donated to rescues. Petsmart traditionally THROWS their torn bags in the garbage instead of giving the food to rescues. A full dog is better than a starving dog. We feed Pedigree all the time and we are happy to have it. We watch for recalls of such foods such as Beneful and don’t feed the recalled stuff. You’d be surprised at how many people will donate recalled food to rescues! Please, please, continue to push for better pet food! I appreciate all you do!

Carol, it raises my hackles to hear of ANYONE feeding Beneful, but I do understand that rescues and shelters, whose funding is inadequate at best, are truly at the mercy of the lower cost pet food. I am so thankful that we, retired and on a fixed income, are able to provide the best of food and medical care that is available. One of the dogs that we rescued many years ago, from a dump picker, received such poor nutrition from grocery store dog food that his bones were brittle and he ended up with a spiral fracture of his thigh bone. We had to put him down, not because of his brittle bones, which would have taken a long time to change, but because of his unstable temperament. He came from a line that produced very aggressive male dogs but the sweetest females.

Our city’s shelter will accept only Science Diet pet food. It’s not the best, but it’s probably much better than what the animals had been receiving before they ended up in the shelter. All we can do is to keep people informed and then let them make their own choices. Sad, sad, sad…

A long time ago I fed Blue Buffalo Wilderness Dry Salmon (with Chicken) to my feral cats and began noticing a LOT of white hairs sticking out of almost every kibble piece. I assumed they were COW hairs BUT the LISTED ingredients did NOT include animal (beef or pork). I still assumed that is what was in the food and eventually stopped feeding it. Cats are fine and no one got sick but as Susan points out, there is no enforced regulation to stop the use of these ingredients and failure to disclose this on labels is also not being enforced. For dry food all my cats (outdoor neighborhood ferals and those that live indoors) eat Orijen and they also eat wet food. Sadly I have even noticed a few white hairs in their Orijen. I don’t think these will cause sickness but as Susan points out, ALL ingredients should be disclosed on labeling!

Did you notice, though, the “qualifying” image? The green kibble is next to the image of the peas and the brown kibble is next to the roasted meat.

I am curious though, how in the world hair makes it through the rendering process? ‘Course I haven’t cooked up any hair lately, so I can’t say how sturdy it is.

I read this nauseating analysis for filth in pet food where one manufacturer has so much hair in the dry dog food – one had over 1220+ shredded animal hairs in 100 grams of food – they have a machine to chop it up into wee bits: http://www.centralhudsonlab.com/petfood.shtml.

I’m sure this has been tried before but what happens if someone takes a picture of a truckload of euthanized cats and dogs from a shelter on its way to a pet food manufacturer and tries to get it published in a mainstream newspaper? Do the newspapers refuse to print it? I just feel like the average consumer would stop buying this crap if they knew for sure, and didn’t question the validity of the information. (Most consumers won’t take the time to research the validity of all the “the sky is falling” claims they are being bombarded with so printing the truth in little known publications probably doesn’t do any good.)

Mainstream media including TV, newspapers, magazines mostly protect big corporations and protect the gov as they work in conjunction with them.

And of course they want the advertising dollars from Pedigree, Purina, Science Diet, Iams, Eucanuba, etc so they are very unlikely to ever promote the photos of the truck loads of innocently murdered dogs and cats, driven to the rendering plants for cooking and grinding up.

If mainstream media shows pics of the truth, then they would loose big advertising dollars and the f da whose job is to protect corporations from bad press or bad information, as it is the f da’s job to lie to consumers so consumers buy the products.

Pet food is very profitable when all the ingredients like animal protein are free from all animal shelters across america, killing innocent pets daily.

Cities, counties have plenty of tax payers money to build larger shelters with more play areas and provide local city and county jobs for pet lovers to care for the over population of pets, but again the media covers up this fact so the cities and counties can continue the corruption and kickbacks providing unneeded projects instead of spending all the extra free tax payers money they have on saving lives.
Its a fact they do not want the people to know. Because if the people actually knew, then there would be a big backlash to save most all pets lives.

But again, Big Pet Food wants the innocent dogs and cats to be murdered, because without all this free animal protein, they would make such high profits.

See, everything works as a chain for profits, not for morals. It is is on Mainstream Media, then much of what they have to say is a lie or to change the truth to benefit profits and fool the brainwashed public.

That is why I have said over and over again – if we find it in pet food – it will be front page news. I can virtually guarantee you if canine or feline DNA were ever proved to be found in a pet food or animal feed – the media would be all over it. Why? Because science doesn’t lie.

Trouble is, testing like that costs a boatload of money and no one wants to pay for it.

The media will never do a story on the dead dogs and cats trucked to rendering facilities daily, week after week, month after month and year after year, and cooked and grinded as animal protein, animal meal, animal fat and animal parts in pet food. I know the media too well. The media wants to protect their advertisers like Pedigree, Purina, Science Diet, Iam, Eucanuba, Hills, Nutro, etc. If you notice, these are the Big Pet Food advertisers, so the media is not going to bite the hand that feeds it. Reality, money is king.

Read the book Pet Food: Pets Die For written by a pet food researcher who has worked and been to Big Pet Food Factories. Dead dogs and cats free animal protein from shelters and the grain is the moldy grain from the cereal industry. The fat to stick all the poor dogs and cats and moldy cereal together, is rancid fat comes in 50 gallon barrels from restaurants and the food industry. The barrels can be left out in the heat all summer, and the bacterial toxins are not removed when the fat is cooked into pet food to stick everything together, color it and mold it into kibble.

Customers are fooled because the colored kibble doesn’t look like the dead dogs and cats, but the truth is never pleasant, especially when it comes to pet food.

It is what it is. Reality of big pet food. Thats why it is so cheap. But the idea of feeding my pets, other dogs and cats that were killed and not lucky to find a forever loving home, is sick.

I guess it would be the same thing as feeding the excessive population of humans murdered and ground up as human protein for humans to eat, made into a dry kibble in a bag or meat in a can.

Why do pet food factories pick up the dead dogs and cats from animal shelters for free?

No one would pay for trucks to pick up loads of dead dog and dead cat bodies for free unless what they were picking up was valuable, say Animal Protein, Animal Fat, Animal Meal, Animal Parts, taken to a Rendering Plant to be cooked and grinded.

I know its horrible, but stop being brainwashed and just accept the truth. Truth is never pretty and most do not want to know the truth.

Don’t worry, when I first learned about this after reading the book by a Pet Food Researcher. Pet Food: Pets Die For. I learned the truth.

Obviously you don’t want to believe the truth and haven’t learned the truth. But I am telling you, the media will never need to test the Pedigree or Nestle Purina because the media knows full well that Animal Protein, Animal Meal, Animal Fat, Animal Parts are dogs and cats.

The hair in the food is that of dead dogs and cats. The nails in the food are from dead dogs and cats.

‘b’ – to my knowledge, no pet food company picks up dead animals from shelters. Shelters have to pay to have the bodies removed – and if it is a tax dollar supported shelter (county facility as example) – it is tax payer expense for these bodies to be removed. Those animal bodies are picked up by rendering facilities, the same companies that pick up used grease from restaurants and expired grocery store foods. All of this material – along with dead livestock or dead laboratory animals – is rendered (cooked). The dry material is then sold as the ingredient ‘meat and bone meal’ the oil is sold as the ingredient ‘animal fat’. These ingredients could be sold to pet food but they are also sold to many other industries. Here is a report prepared for Congress in 2004 on the rendering industry: http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/crs/RS21771.pdf. I do believe that dead pets end up as pet food ingredients, but until we find the scientific evidence (DNA testing), we don’t have the absolute proof. And I agree with Mollie – this would make huge headline news if it was scientifically proven.

B – I agree with Susan, there are renderers that regularly pick up dead stock from shelters (and other places) that then deliver them to renderers. Not all counties have incinerators, and it’s illegal to landfill them. They don’t have a lot of options.

LA county is one of them of the places that we know of that has a renderer pick up their euthanized and dead pets. I believe Valley Proteins was the renderer, if I remember correctly. I have the records on file.

What I meant about testing is we need to do it. Not the media.

And with media today – mainstream With social media today – it has entirely transformed the landscape, the message. It is a democratic society now, individuals have a voice and collectively they are a powerful and are capable of ruining a brand.

Think about Mars/Pedigree pig hair kerfuffle – it’s gone viral. All the major media outlets are covering this story – they could care less that it’s Mars – it’s news. And it all began with the buzz on social media.

I love Ann Martin’s book, it’s one of my favorites, and I applaud her for her pioneering work.

And I do believe we have the power to affect change. We reach millions via social media.

All we need is a boatload – or maybe a dingy full – of money to test. Susan knows all too well how much testing costs – it’s insane. She can tell you.

BTW – I thought this was funny: “…stop being brainwashed and just accept the truth. Truth is never pretty and most do not want to know the truth.” Apparently, you have no idea who I am.

The ingredients are very misleading.
They should be required to put Dead Dogs and Dead Cats, etc on the ingredients.

But they are allowed to put Animal Protein, Animal Fat, Animal Parts, etc so people don’t believe that its really dead dogs and cats.

But it is. But many people do not want to believe the truth.

The truth is never pleasant for most everything.

The mainstream news never tells the truth. The natiional news are mostly all lies or misconceptions.

When you start researching the truth. You will be amazed of the lies not only on the news, but continued in story lines on tv shows, reality shows, etc to keep promoting the lies we learn, so we think those lies are actually reality.

But now, more and more people are learning the truth not only about Big Pet Food, conventional veterinarians that do not promote health in pets, and mislead pet owners, to chemo pesticide, vaccines, chem spraying – white lines in skies, etc etc…

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW, awful, about 20 years when I was buying Kal Kan, canned food, I found a big black dog’s toenail in the can, anyway, I spoke to the rep and he offered me a free case of food, I declined, he also told me that he hadn’t a clue how that got in the can! anyway back then there was no “social media”, so that icky experience just stayed with me and my parents.

Apparently the advertising rules of the Federal Trade Commission don’t apply to pet food.
The rules say: “Under the law, claims in advertisements must be truthful, cannot be deceptive or unfair, and must be evidence-based. For some specialized products or services, additional rules may apply.” Unless their definition of “deceptive” is far removed from my definition.https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/advertising-and-marketing

I never got an answer to my post some time ago about the worm I found in a can of dog food. I don’t want to have to reiterate, but I usually cook for my dogs but this time I was in a hurry I opened a large sized can of store brand dog food to add to give them with some cottage cheese. I saw in the chunk of dog food a twig. When I separated it to look at the gray green twig I noticed that it was mobile. I saw it start to move and realized it was about a 2 inch worm of some sort and worse, it was alive. I thought about saving it, but I wasn’t going to sue anyone and it was gross. I also knew they would tell me it couldn’t have happened or I was making it up or that it couldn’t have survived the canning. I know all those things, so I researched as much as I could and came up with nothing. It is similar to a sea “red worm” but it was more gray and it would open its mouth up wide open at about 180 like a lamprey, but the inside of it’s mouth was bright neon green. I can’t make this up folks! I can’t find anything that looks like that. So, has anyone heard of anything and what it could have been from? It was a chicken dog food HY-Vee brand, but who knows what. Obviously I will be watching what type of canned I buy. I have benn buying Dave’s and Dave’s dry for those days I am running behind. Any ideas plase let me know.

Am I the only one who noticed that they said, “Our team has conducted testing on affected kibble and determined these are natural fibers from meat and bone meal, ***LIKE*** pig hair, that occur with products made using those ingredients.”

Did they ever actually say that it was, indeed, pig hair, with 100% certainty? Or was their only claim of it being pig hair from within the quoted statement above? If they never said, “We have tested this, and it is pig hair, which comes from the ‘meat and bone meal’ ingredient in our Pedigree Dog Food.” Otherwise…. Whatever that wire, or “natural fiber”, or hair is…It’s LIKE pig hair, buuuuuuut….doesn’t necessarily mean that it IS pig hair.

You know what else has “hair”, Mars Petcare? Dogs. Cats. Rats. …What doesn’t have hair, though? Chickens. They don’t have hair. And that’s what this food claims to be made of: chicken. Sooo… Why are you not telling me, Mars, that your food contains pork? Or other animals LIKE pigs, that also contain hair?

The responses that theseI companies have…It makes me sick. It truly shows just how little they care about their consumers, about their money makers, essentially. You don’t care about the very lives that are bringing home YOUR bacon, Mars? And I am sure YOUR bacon won’t be found with any “natural fibers” like this. Oh no….but yet, your dog food is SO healthy and complete and balanced. If it’s so healthy, I want to see one of these corporate ….people (was the nicest word I could come up with for the people working for these companies, lol) live off it. Fat chance of that happening, right Mars?! Purina?? Hill’s?! P&G??? Let’s see any one of them show us just how healthy these foods are. I would love to see them take the very ingredients they use to make these pet foods….And cook it into something a human could eat (something not in a kibble form..something that looks more like human food, but uses their pet food ingredients). I bet they would be begging on hands and knees for something else! Because they know just how bad it is, they know just how unsafe and unhealthy it is…..It’s terrible.

Can these “natural fibers” be taken or sent to someone else for testing? The NY Dept. of Agriculture seems to have their act together (maybe?), with the few things I’ve seen them do, in favor of giving pet owners the truth about pet food…. Maybe sending it them for testing? To verify for sure, exactly what it is? Is something like this possible? Because I feel pretty confident that the FDA already has their lines made up of what to say…. “As Mars Petcare stated, these were found to be “natural fibers”….blah blah blah”, because we all know what team they’re rooting for…..certainly not the people, the public, the general consumer….

Yeah, and I also notice this small bit of wording here: “We understand your concern and our pet’s safety is our first priority too. . . .”

You notice they only said their own pet’s safety, not YOURS!!!!!!

and as far as ingredients matching pictures (or anything on the front of the bag, for that matter!!!) a friend recently rescued a puppy, and hurried into petco and came out with “Under The Sun” brand, which is by Canidae. The front of all of the packages said that it was made with farm raised chicken. Nowhere on the front did it mention pork. They were all based on pork, with “some” chicken listed further down the ingredient list, after peas and chickpeas.